Shoe rearching and straightening appliance



July 15, 1947.

R. M. ANDERSON SHOE RE-ARCHING AND STRAIGHTENING APPLIANCE Fi1ed NOV. 6, 1944 2 INVENTOR. 32 @xssel M Avie/:50

Patented July 15 1947 SHOE REARCHING AND STRAIGHTENING APPLIANCE Russell M. Anderson, Kansas City, Mo.

Application November 6, 1944, Serial No. 562,066

Claims.

1 This invention relates to shoe treating appliances in the nature of a re-arching and straightening clamp, and the primary aim is to provide a simple, effective and positively operating appliance of the aforesaid character, having ameans forming a part thereof for shaping the shank of the shoe to which the appliance is affixed, simultaneously with the straightening of the sole thereof.

One of the most important objects of this invention is to provide improvements in shoe rearching and straightening appliances in the nature of those disclosed by my U. S. Letters Patent Nos. 2,313,417 issued March 9, 1943, and 2,346,344 issued April 11, 1944.

In my aforesaid Letters Patent the means for straightening the sole of the shoe and for gripping the toe and heel of the shoe being treated, is devoid of any part to purposely curve the shank portion of the shoe sole and therefore, certain objections often times arise when using the device covered by my aforesaid Letters Patent because of the destructive force exerted upon the aforesaid shank or that zone of the shoe sole lying just ahead of the heel. Specific objects of my invention, therefore, are to provide a shoe shaping appliance having a part curved to fit the shank which part is held in operative position by means capable of exerting a pressure at the shank and of maintaining that pressure as the shoe sole is straightened or as the shoe per se changes its form due to dehydration.

Other objects of the invention will include the specific manner of assembling the appliance with the shank engaging member in the proper position, and many other novel features, all of which will be come apparent during the following specification, referring to the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a shoe rearching and straightening appliance mounted upon a shoe and made to embody the present invention. 4

Fig. 2 is an inverted plan view of the appliance in place on the shoe.

Fig. 3 is a side elevational View of the appliance illustrating the position of the parts thereof at the time of application to a shoe to be treated.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary top plan view of the forward portion of the appliance per se; and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary detailed sectional view taken on line V-V of Fig. 1.

An understanding of my above identified U. S. Letters Patent will readily teach the manner in which a re-arching and straightening appliance 2 may be associated with the external portion of a shoe 26. The particular type of shoe 26, which is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, includes a heel 22, a toe portion 24, a sole 26, and a shank 28.

The heel member, broadly designated by the numeral 36, is formed of a single length of wire rebent upon itself toform legs 32, the free ends whereof are inturned as at 34 to engage a lever 36.

The bight of heel member 36 extends laterally from legs 32 and is curved and contoured to present an engaging arch 38. The length of the laterally extending portion of member 36 is great enough to maintain legs 32 a distance from the bottom of heel 22 when the appliance is in the operative condition illustrated in Fig. 1.

Toe member is designated in its entirety by ref-- erence numeral 46 and, like heel member 30, comprises a single length of wire rebent upon itself to form a substantially U-shaped body, the legs 42 whereof are inturned as at 44 to engage a lever 46 in the manner clearly shown in Figs. 3 and 4.

A laterally projecting length of member 42 at its bight, is inclined upwardly and rearwardly and contoured as at 48 to engage the top of sole 26 at its line of connection with toe portion 24 of shoe 26. The length of the laterally extending portion of member 24 at the toe of the shoe, should be long enough to maintain legs 42 slightly spaced below the bottom of sole 26.

Levers 36 and 46 respectively are pivotally joined by pin 50 and lever 36 has a series of holes 52 for the reception of the inturned ends 34 of heel member 36. Lever 36 is U-shaped in transverse cross section as illustrated in Fig. 5, for legs 32 are of the same length and the inturned ends thereof are in opposed relation. Pin 56 passes through both walls of U-shaped lever 36 and confines lever 46 therebetween. This lever 46 is a single sheet of material provided with a plurality of perforations 54 to receive the inturned ends 44 of legs 42. Legs 42 are different in length and therefore, legs 42 may be secured to lever 46 in the fashion depicted in Fig. 4.

The upper end of lever 46 is arched as at 56. This compound arch merges with a straight portion 58 that underlies a portion of sole 26 when lever 46 is in the operative position beneath shank 28 of shoe 29.

Shank 28 is held against any straightening tendency when members 32 and 40 are drawn together by levers 36 and 46. When parts 30, 46, 36 and 46 are in the relative positions shown in Fig. 1, inward and downward pressure is exerted at members 38 and 48 and an upward force is exerted against both shank 28, by the curved edge 56 of lever 42, and against sole 26 by portion 58 of lever 4'6. Because the free, inner and proximal ends of heel member 30 and toe member 40 may be adjusted by springing the inturned and downturned ends from their engaged position, lever 46 may be shifted to insure the proper treatment of shank 28. The inherent resiliency of the material from which heel member 30 and toe member 40 is produced, will insure an upward force being exerted against the shank 28 even as the length of shoe 2!! is altered slightly due to the dehydratin effect and therefore, its straightening action.

All of the benefits enjoyed by using the device disclosed in my two above identified Letters Patent will be present so far as straightening the shoe 20 is concerned, but in addition, the arch treating lever 46 will guarantee a formation of that portion of the shoe which was not obtainable from the apparatus which has previously been made the subject matter of my two former patents.

It is realized that certain modifications may be made in the specific form of the apparatus illustrated and described without departing from the spirit of the invention and scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A shoe re-arching and straightening appliance comprising a heel member formed to engage the rear portion of the shoe heel and extend longitudinally therebeneath; a toe member formed for engagement with the toe of the shoe and extend beneath the shoe toward the heel member; and a pair of levers interconnecting said heel member and the toe member arranged to draw said members toward each other upon manual manipulation of the levers, one of said levers having a portion of one longitudinal edge thereof in engagement with the sole of the shoe at the shank thereof when the appliance is in the operative position, said lever being of a length to extend forwardly from the shank to a point spaced from the toe of the shoe, said shank engaging portion of the lever being arched to present the desired curvature to the shoe sole at the said shank thereof, said arched portion of the lever merging with the forwardly extending length thereof to establish an upward pressure along the entire length of said longitudinal edge against both the shank and portion of the sole adjacent thereto, as downward pull is exerted at the heel and toe of the shoe.

2. A shoe re-arching and straightening appliance comprising a heel member formed to engage the rear portion of the shoe heel and extend longitudinally therebeneath; a toe member formed for engagement with the toe of the shoe and extend beneath the shoe toward the heel member; and a pair of leversinterconnecting said heel member and the toe member arranged to draw said members toward each other upon manual manipulation of the levers, one of said levers having a planar element and the entire length of one longitudinal edge thereof in engagement with the sole of the shoe when the appliance is in the operative position, said engaging edge havin an arched portion to present the desired curvature to the shoe sole at the shank thereof and a substantially straight portion extending forwardly of said shank of the shoe sole and terminating at a point intermediate the toe end of the shoe and the shank thereof, said planar member having a series of aligned perforations formed therein, the said toe member being substantially U-shaped with legs of difierent lengths, said legs each having an inturned portion at their free ends to enter respectively the perforations of the said planar'element.

3. A shoe re-arching and straightening appliance comprisin a heel member formed to engage the rear portion of the shoe heel and extend longitudinally therebeneath; a toe member formed for engagement with the toe of the shoe and extend beneath the shoe toward the heel member; and a pair of levers interconnecting said heel member and the toe member arranged to draw said members toward each other upon manipulation of the levers, one of said levers being formed to have an edge thereof forced against the sole of the shoe at the shank thereof when the appliance is in the operative position and to hold the heel member and the toe member spaced from the bottom of the shoe whereby all the said force is exerted upwardly along the shank of the shoe, said one lever being longitudinally arched along the edge thereof which is forced against the sole of the shoe and being provided withmeans forpositioning the same at one of a number of positions to insure contact with the shank of the shoe being straightened and arched.

4-. A shoe re-archin and straightenin appliance comprising a heel member formed to ,engage the rear portion of the shoe heel and extend longitudinally therebeneath; a lever pivotally connected to the forward end of said heel member; a toe member formed for engagement with the toe of the shoe and extending beneath the shoe toward the heel member; and a second lever pivotally connected to the rearward end of said toe member, said first mentioned lever being pivotally joined at one end thereof to the rearward endof said second lever 'for drawing the members toward each other upon manual manipulation of the levers, a portion of one edge of said second lever being arched to conform to the curvature of the shoe sole at the shank thereof, the remainder of said edge being substantially straight and-extending below a part of the sole forwardly of said shank, the full length of said edge of the second lever being in engagement withthe sole of the shoe when the appliance is in the operative position.

5'. A. shoe arching and straightening appliance as set forth inclaim l, wherein the sole engaging lever extends below the sole a distance to hold both the toe and the heel members out of engagement with the sole of the shoe when the appliance is inoperative position.

RUSSELL M. ANDERSON.

REFEKENQES QITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,346,344 Anderson Apr. 11, 1944 1,943,657 Drury Jan. 16, 1934 

